If you are researching transactional law, you'll have to develop a research stragegy to include locating information on a business, finding market data, and if it is a public company, you might want to chart the company's stock performance, and locate biographical information on executives and board members.  You may also want to research the filing requirements of the Federal Securities & Exchange Commission, or locate a state agency's filing requirements.  

Databases & resources available to you for business and finance research are located at both the Law Library and the Business Library. 

Law Library Resources

All three major legal databases available at the law library have transactional law resources and each database has exclusive features, as well as the usual business resources, including: company profiles, SEC filings, checklists, forms, sample clauses & precedent searching, case law, state and federal statutes, regulations, agency decisions and no-action letters.  

These legal database are available by subscription to the law school community, and are located in alphabetical order on our Top Law Databases tab, at https://library.law.wisc.edu/top-law-databases/.

Bloomberg Law - To begin your search, select the tab at the top of the screen called, Transactional Intelligence Center, to locate business and securities information.  Alternatively, you can select Browse on the top left-hand side of the home page to select a subject from the pop-up menu, "corporate" or "corporate governance"  are good places to search for a company profile.  The profile will automatically subdivided to links to SEC filings, board member biographies, and so forth.  Included in the profile, an AI generate visual graph of legal information on your company.    

To begin, type the company name or ticker symbol in the menu box to retrieve a company profile.  

Lexis for law schools - At the tab at the top of the screen, select Practice Areas: Select Business & Coporate Law, then select topical resources.  Other business related topics include Securities Law and Business and Corporate Compliance. 

If you would like to review a D&B report, Lexis+ includes: Dun & Bradstreet Global Market Identifiers Plus

Westlaw for law schools - To locate company information on Westlaw, select the Practice Area tab and then select your subtopic, corporations, corporate governance, M&A, and so forth.  

If you are beginning your research and would like to search a legal encyclopedia on corporate law, Westlaw provides a favorite: Fletchers Cyclopedia of the Law of Corporations.

For Securities research, try Westlaw's Business Law Center.  This database has SEC filings, EDGAR and SEDAR precendent agreements, a forms guide, and other related securities law resources.  

Business Library Resources

The Business Library has a variety of business databases available campus-wide.  If you are off campus you will need to use your NetID to use these.

A few databases of note at the Business Library include:

PitchBook
Pitchbook features real time data to research and analyze private and public companies, startup trends, private equity & venture capital financing deals, VC and PE investment funds, investors, and service providers across the entire private investment lifecycle.

Data-Planet Statistical Datasets (Conquest Systems, Inc.)
Provides simple and refined searching of the Data-Planet repository of standardized and structured statistical data. Subjects include Banking, Finance and Insurance including Flow of Funds (Z.1); Energy Resources and Demand; Industry and Commerce; International; Population and Income; Prices and Cost of Living; Stocks and Commodities; and more. Users can search and view charts, maps, and rankings of time series at the country, state, county, MSA, postal code, and census-tract/block group levels. (Dates vary)

MarketLine
Provides company profiles, industry reports, financial deal reports and,country reports. Also contains case studies. Industry profiles include Porter’s Five Forces.

Mintel Academic
In-depth reports from 2001-present that analyze market size and segmentation, consumer attitudes, and marketing strategies relative to hundreds of consumer products in the United States. Lifestyle reports such as “Green Marketing” and “Spending Habits of the Teen Consumer” are also available. (New reports issued monthly)

Submitted by Jenny Zook, Reference Librarian on February 13, 2025

This article appears in the categories: Law Library